My Five Day Cleanse

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this summer has involved a lot of travel for myself personally and for work. I try to enjoy myself when I travel – pasta in Italy, pizza in New York, meals out with friends. But after a while it takes it’s toll. My rule of thumb while traveling is 2 healthy meals and one indulgent meal. I find it allows me to stay on track while still enjoying the local cuisine. After spending 6 days in SF and eating out every single night, though, I was ready for a reset. I decided to give up gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol for 5 days. Here’s how it went.

I’ve never “given up” coffee because I truly didn’t think I needed to. But in the last couple of months I’ve had trouble sleeping so I decided it was time to investigate. The first day of zero caffeine was incredibly hard so I decided to allow myself some grace and cut down to one cup a day. This was way more manageable and truthfully made me so much happier. Today I had one cup and one single shot latte and that will be the most I have (I often relax on my “rules” on the weekend).

Giving up dairy was pretty easy because I rarely eat it in the first place. But it’s surprisingly hard when you’re relying on storebought salads and eating with others. I ordered a salad out and it came with cheese. Instead of throwing my hands up, I ate around it and just resigned to the fact that I did my best.

I thought sugar would be a breeze but it turns out it’s in almost 90% of the sauces I enjoy, namely: sriracha. While it’s a small amount, I decided to stick to my guns and gave it up for the week. It was hard.

As I’d eaten out every day the week prior, giving up alcohol and gluten wasn’t that bad. I know I feel best when I minimize the amount of simple carbs I eat so I was looking forward to it, actually. If anything, giving up alcohol made me appreciate my 1-1.5 glasses a day of a nice wine while cooking dinner.

Overall, my body felt reset by the end of this cleanse and I know it’s a great reset for me. I’ll probably do it again in the new year after we get back from our annual beach vacation.

What makes you feel your best when you’ve gone off the wagon?